This is according to a new global benchmark report released by Outcomes Rocket, which surveyed 858 marketing and communications professionals across industries and company sizes worldwide.

The study found that 84.1% of respondents believe PR will take on a larger part in supporting sales and business outcomes by 2028.

At the same time, 73% expect PR to become even more strategic as organisations adapt to changing ways people find and consume information.

The findings indicate that PR is moving beyond its traditional role of generating awareness and media coverage. Companies now see it as a business function that supports credibility, customer trust and revenue growth.

Seven in 10 organisations said PR now plays an important role in their go-to-market efforts and this is also seen in company structures.

Nearly half of respondents, 48.7%, said PR is fully integrated with marketing and sales teams, while another 36.6% reported partial integration.

Despite that thriving influence, many organisations still focus their PR efforts on awareness rather than direct business results.

Increasing brand awareness is the leading objective for 66.3% of respondents. Reputation management follows at 39.4%, while only 14.4% said supporting go-to-market campaigns is a key priority.

Just 17.1% listed visibility in emerging search environments among their main objectives.

The report also highlights the gap between the importance companies place on PR and how they measure its impact.

Half of the organisations surveyed still rely mainly on traditional indicators such as media mentions, impressions and share of voice.

Although 43.7% connect PR activity to website traffic and 41.3% track referral visits from earned media, 11.5% admitted they do not systematically measure PR impact at all.

For many teams, proving business value is difficult.

Budget limitations emerged as the most common challenge, cited by 30.9% of respondents. Another 26.7% said they lack clear tracking processes or key performance indicators, while 25.4% struggle to connect PR activity to sales and revenue outcomes.

The study found that organisations are also failing to maximise the value of media coverage after it is secured.

Only 13.1% share earned media coverage directly with sales teams, while just 6.1% incorporate PR insights into sales training and enablement programmes.

Meanwhile, 33.2% use PR content in marketing campaigns, but only 21.7% repurpose media coverage into blogs, newsletters or other owned content.

Budget trends point to maturing trust in PR, although investment remains measured.

On average, organisations allocate 14% of their marketing budgets to PR. Nearly half, 47.7%, increased PR spending over the past year, although most described those increases as modest rather than substantial.

The report also found that 44.8% of organisations increased PR investment because of changes in search and content discovery, while 32.5% reported no change in spending.

Most companies manage PR internally. More than a third, 35.9%, operate dedicated in-house PR teams, while 34.9% handle PR through broader marketing departments. Only 8.4% rely entirely on external agencies.

Another key finding centres on governance and policy.

While the use of automation and digital tools has become global across communications teams, only 21.4% of organisations have formal, documented and enforced policies governing their use. More than 70% lack fully established guidelines.

Respondents identified data privacy and compliance as their biggest concern, cited by 40.1%. Accuracy issues followed at 37.9%, while 29.2% worried about losing a consistent brand voice.

Even so, the report found limited evidence of major negative consequences so far. More than a third of organisations, 35.4%, said they had experienced no major issues. Only 6.6% reported reputational or quality-related problems.

Over the next two years, respondents expect automation to be the strongest force driving PR. Nearly half, 46.6%, pointed to automated workflows as the biggest trend, followed by growth in digital PR activities at 38.2%.

Summing up the findings, Outcomes Rocket said PR has reached a turning point as organisations connect communications efforts with commercial outcomes.

“The data shows that PR is no longer a supporting function. It is a strategic driver of visibility, authority, and business impact.”

The company added that while PR’s influence grows, many organisations still face gaps in execution, measurement and governance that could limit their ability to demonstrate business value.

The report is based on a global survey conducted in March 2026 among 858 marketing and public relations professionals drawn from sectors including professional services, technology, education, ecommerce, healthcare, financial services and manufacturing.

The annual report, launched by SquirrelPR, now tracks digital media performance across 13 African countries, up from five markets last year. 

It examines traffic, trust signals, audience behaviour, search influence and platform authority across the continent.

Speaking at the launch of the Ranked 2026 report, Jonah Solomon, co-founder and chief executive officer of SquirrelPR, said the project began after an overseas user asked a question about which Nigerian journalists should receive a press release.

“When we started Ranked report, it was after we launched SquirrelPR, and a user overseas called us and said, I see over 1000 journalists on this platform, but who should I send my release to in Nigeria?”

He said what began as a manual solution later became a structured ranking product first focused on Nigeria before expanding across Africa.

“We started with Nigeria and when we rolled it out, we realised that the publishers themselves found it more valuable than even the PR managers were targeting.”

This year’s edition covered Nigeria, South Africa, Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Tanzania, Democratic Republic of Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Senegal and Tunisia, among others.

Traffic Falling, Influence Shifting

Presenting the keynote address, Keni Akintoye, CEO and lead strategist at KT Communications, said the media industry must stop relying only on traffic numbers to judge success.

“For years, we understood digital media performance through a familiar lens, which is traffic, reach impressions, bounce rates,” he said.

“But today, the signals are different.”

Akintoye said audiences now consume information through search summaries, social feeds, aggregated platforms and algorithmic recommendations, usually without visiting the original publisher’s website.

“The consuming content, forming opinions, doing all they used to do without arriving at the source.”

He added that influence has not disappeared, but moved.

“It is no longer who publishes. It is who is believed.”

According to him, credibility is becoming more valuable than clicks in an era impacted by artificial intelligence and fragmented attention.

“The future of African media will not be defined by who is loudest. It will be defined by who is most intentional.”

What the Data Showed

Solomon said the Ranked 2026 report used 12 months of historical data sourced from Similarweb, Ahrefs, Google Analytics, Google Trends and other tools.

A total of 131 news platforms were tracked. Across Nigeria, combined traffic dropped from more than one billion visits to 769 million visits.

He said the decline should not be seen as newsroom failure.

“It simply means that the audiences have moved upstream, and you need to find out how to reach them.”

He added that domain authority, a measure of how trusted and established a website is in search ecosystems, was stronger and more stable than traffic, making it a more reliable indicator of influence.

“Traffic becomes less reliable, then Domain Authority has emerged as the most consistent indicator of influence.”

The report also found that several major Nigerian publishers now receive a notable share of traffic from outside the country, while entertainment and cultural sites continue to attract stronger local audiences.

Nigeria Category Leaders

In entertainment and lifestyle, leading names included Google, BellaNaija and other established outlets.

In technology media, Techpoint Africa was the traffic leader, followed by TechCabal and emerging platforms such as TechNext and Techeconomy.

In business and finance, Nairametrics led.

For general news and current affairs, Vanguard topped traffic rankings, ahead of Punch, Legit, Sahara Reporters and The Nation.

SquirrelPR 2.0 Unveiled

The event also featured the launch of SquirrelPR 2.0, a rebuilt version of the company’s communications platform.

James Ezechukwu, co-founder and chief technology officer, said the upgraded system now includes an AI press release generator, language translation tools, media discovery, instant journalist messaging, project management functions and client management features for PR agencies.

“Our goal as SquirrelPR is to be the core operating system for PR in Africa,” he said.

The company also introduced a monitoring solution designed to help organisations track media mentions and public conversations in real time.

The event, which was planned for 60 attendees, had guest registrations exceeding 80, showing an increasing interest in data-led communications and media intelligence.

Closing the event, Ezechukwu said: “The reward for good work is more work.”